A World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Injuries, Violence and Accident Prevention

News

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), unintentional injuries, particularly road traffic injuries, drowning and fire-related burns are among the leading causes of death for children 1-19 years. This translates into more than 2000 child deaths each day as the result of an unintentional injury.

Despite these shocking numbers, child injuries have not received much attention in the public health community. In fact, to date, few studies have examined exclusively the global child injuries of all age groups and even fewer have provided evidence-based solutions for tackling this burden.

The Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) is committed to reducing the global burden of childhood unintentional injuries. From our assessment of the potential of child injury prevention in "Saving 1000 children a day: The potential of child and adolescent injury prevention"(accessed here) to our Global Road Safety Program work in low- and middle-income countries that focuses on interventions like seatbelts and child restraints, JH-IIRU is dedicated to using reliable data to assess risks and introduce effective interventions. We have analyzed hospital data on pediatric burn injuries in South Africa, examined child road safety education programs in Malaysia and done extensive home injury risk assessment work in Pakistan.

On February 27th, the Unit will announce an important new project in Bangladesh that will once again focus on reducing the number of childhood fatalities in that country. We'll have more information available here in the coming days.

Until then, follow these links to access information on the unit's extensive work in preventing childhood unintentional injuries: